Water abstraction

Water abstraction

Water abstraction, or water extraction, is the process of taking water from any source, either temporarily or permanently. Most water is used for irrigation or treatment to produce drinking water.

Depending on the environmental legislation in the relevant country, controls may be placed on abstraction to limit the amount of water that can be removed. Over abstraction can lead to rivers drying up or the level of groundwater aquifers reducing unacceptably.

The science of hydrogeology is used to assess safe abstraction levels.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Abstraction (disambiguation) — Abstraction may refer to one of the following: * Abstraction, the thought process wherein ideas are distanced from objects * Abstraction (computer science), a mechanism and practice to reduce and factor out details so that one can focus on few… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply network — Public infrastructure …   Wikipedia

  • Water cycle — The Earth s water is always in movement, and the water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Since the water cycle is truly a cycle, there is no… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in Ghana — The water supply and sanitation sector in Ghana faces severe problems, partly due to a neglect of the sector until the 1990s. Tariffs were kept at a low level which was far from reflecting the real cost of the service. Economic efficiency still… …   Wikipedia

  • Water resources management in Colombia — Colombia has a long and well established framework for water resources management. Water resources availability per capita in Colombia was 45,408 cubic meters in 2007, way above the world’s average of 8,209. The country is particularly prone to… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in France — Costs and affordability In the year 2005 * 46 % of water and sanitation tariffs were linked to water treatment and distribution; * 37 % were linked to wastewater collection and treatment; * 17 % corresponded to fees and taxes. [ [http://www.cieau …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in the Netherlands — is provided in good quality and at a reasonable price to the entire population. Water consumption is one of the lowest in developed countries at 124 liter per capita per day and water leakage in the distribution network is one of the lowest in… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in Israel — is intricately linked to the historical development of Israel in the context of scarce water resources. Because the coastal plain of historical Palestine had few water resources, Theodor Herzl already envisioned the transfer of water from the… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in the European Union — still is under the responsibility of each member state. Nevertheless, the European Union established some policies which impact the National water strategies tremendously. However, WSS evolved in every Member State independently until the… …   Wikipedia

  • Water supply and sanitation in Saudi Arabia — differs from most other countries in three significant aspects. First, it relies almost exclusively on two sources that are absent in most other countries: desalination and fossil water. Second, given the substantial oil wealth of the country,… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”